Submitted by Jaynie Jones.
“Inflammation is the ground state of cancer” says Dr. Bill Dean. In an even bolder statement, Dr. Dean asserts that, “Inflammation is the ground state of everything.” He further elucidates that concept as he explains that it all revolves around the “toxic load” and “pitta build-up” that drive inflammation and the eventual onset of cancer at the extreme. “All disease begins in the bowel.”
What is “toxic load” and what is “pitta”? Follow along for more about those terms…
William M. “Bill” Dean, M.D. is a board-certified urologist, whose private clinical practice has specialized in treating adult and pediatric patients in Tacoma and Gig Harbor since 1979.
Dr. Dean has a brilliant mind and is always striving to achieve excellence and the best outcomes for his patients. And yet he’s like the guy next door, down-to-earth, easy to talk to, like you’ve known him your whole life. Those are both personal and professional observations. Yes, you can think of them as testimonials, as I have had the privilege to work closely with Dr. Dean over the course of several years and I think the world of him.
From 1994 through 2002, Dr. Dean’s post-doctoral training broadened to include Mindbody Medicine – Infinite Possibilities, Inc. with Deepak Chopra & David Simon, San Diego, CA where he became a Certified Mindbody Medicine Educator.
In 1998, Dr. Dean became the director of the Northwest Center for Wellbeing. Later, he joined the University of Puget Sound as an Instructor. Dr. Dean joined the faculty of Bastyr University just two years ago, but the pandemic led to the university trimming back the newest additions to their program offerings, faculty and staff.
Over his decades of medical practice, Dr. Dean has seen a tremendous amount of suffering by patients with interstitial cystitis (chronic or recurrent bladder inflammation and pain), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), fibromyalgia, chronic prostatitis and so on.
Since 2012, Dr. Dean has written extensively about these conditions and focused on these topics on his blog Interstitial Cystitis Solutions. He has created a virtual library there and adds that “there is so much material on the website. People are ready for it here … in India, South Africa, Israel, all around the world. There has a very pragmatic effect. The University of Oregon’s largest department now is Telemedicine. The online hook-up provides a wealth of information. It’s a really great service with Zoom. Expand your horizons, because God gave us everything we need.”
What has come into a sharper focus for Dr. Dean over the years is that few people ever make the Mindbody connection that the foods they consume are directly related to the misery they are suffering – not just in their gastrointestinal tract – but also in their urinary tract.
Dr. Dean estimates that roughly “90% of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are also suffering from interstitial cystitis (IC)” (painful, inflammation of the urinary bladder). Therefore, more and more of his practice has evolved to focus on educating his patients about the root cause of their condition rather than simply writing prescriptions for pharmaceutical agents to mask their symptoms without ever addressing the underlying cause.
Vasant Lad, BAM&S, MASc, a renowned Ayurvedic Physician, originally from India, but teaching and treating patients in Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1986, is the founder of The Ayurvedic Institute. He writes that, “Ayurveda is considered by many scholars to be the oldest healing science. In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means ‘The Science of Life.’ Ayurvedic knowledge originated in India more than 5,000 years ago and is often called the ‘Mother of All Healing.’ Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through close attention to balance in one’s life, right thinking, diet, lifestyle and the use of herbs.”
“Vata, pitta and kapha are combinations and permutations of five elements that manifest as patterns present in all creation. In the physical body, vata is the subtle energy of movement, pitta the energy of digestion and metabolism, and kapha the energy that forms the body’s structure.”—Ayurveda.com
Ah-ha! There’s that word “pitta” again. But what about “toxic load?” What is that?!? It takes an entirely new understanding and vocabulary to grasp these concepts that seem so foreign to western medicine.
Yet, Dr. Dean has somehow managed to embrace the best of the ancient Ayurvedic traditions and assimilate them into his medical practice over the years. This has fascinated me that he has been able to see for himself through dedicated, concentrated study what works today and has worked for thousands of years and incorporate those principles into his modern, western or allopathic medical practice – a practice that also includes the ‘firsts’ I will share in the next paragraphs. Sharing this knowledge has become Dr. Dean’s passion as he has learned more about it himself. He began teaching classes in Ayurveda at Bastyr University two years ago. He is also a clinical instructor in Creating Health, Primordial Sound Meditation, and is an Amrit Hatha Yoga instructor.
Robotic Surgery
Dr. Dean was intrigued by the concept of robotic surgery and the promise of a plethora of benefits it could provide for men undergoing surgery for prostate cancer, e.g., shorter hospital stays, less blood loss, decreased risk of infection, less time lost from work, greater likelihood of maintaining normal sexual function and less risk of incontinence than with traditional radical prostatectomy. He traveled across the country and took the highly specialized training to become certified with the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System. He was the first surgeon in Tacoma to achieve this!
The next daunting task was to convince the MultiCare Health System to invest in the purchase of the brand-new technology of the robotic surgical system at a cost of more than a million dollars. He did. And it wasn’t long before MultiCare’s Tacoma General Hospital began offering the first robotic surgeries for the treatment of prostate cancer being performed in Tacoma.
Electronic Medical Records
It was Dr. Dean who was the first physician in the Tacoma area to adopt electronic medical records. He boldly made the transition from decades of paper file folders to digital charts long before any other office practices in the area did and it wasn’t simply a matter of switching over to an electronic medical records (EMR) system. Dr. Dean actually had the office staff box-up all of the charts and had them physically removed from the office along with the metal filing cabinets, so there was no going back to the old way of doing things. It was a commitment to move forward with the new technology.
What is Telemedicine?
Telemedicine can create access to medical specialists for patients living in remote or rural areas where it might otherwise be impossible for their local primary care physician to obtain the consultation(s) necessary to address their needs.
How does Telemedicine work?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Telemedicine has allowed patients to continue to be evaluated so long as the patient has access to a smartphone, tablet or PC and internet connection to facilitate keeping the appointment with their provider.
Telemedicine
Dr. Dean has further evolved his practice today. He is seeing patients exclusively now via Telemedicine consultations. Contact him directly via email for more detailed information, if you are interested in scheduling a 90-minute consultation. His email address is on the main page of his website Interstitial Cystitis Solutions along with the online scheduler so you can choose your own appointment time, then complete the registration and history forms prior to the Telemedicine visit. mailto:drbilldean@gmail.com
Foods Heal
Dr. Dean’s book Foods Heal: Why Certain Foods Make You Feel Your Best is available on Amazon both in a paperback and Kindle version for about the price of a cup of coffee.
How do Ayurvedic herbs work?
Deepak Chopra and Christine Tara Peterson, Ph.D. are the co-authors with Dr. Peterson of a fascinating study published in May on LinkedIn titled How Ayurvedic Herbs Work, which states that “An Ayurvedic regimen is adapted to your individual needs with personalized herbal formulations to address the gut, the mind, stamina or hormones, which are often a chief complaint.”
Christine Tara Peterson, Ph.D., A.H.D., is an Assistant Project Scientist in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, where she completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship, and is leading Clinical Trials with Ayurvedic medicine and the therapeutic modulation of microbiomes in neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Peterson is also focused on mechanistic research in Ayurvedic Medicine, neuroprotection as it is related to the microbiota-gut-brain axis, and the discovery of natural therapeutics. Deepak Chopra, M.D., founder of The Chopra Foundation.
William M. Dean, M.D. earned his Bachelor of Science degree from St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO, and then went on to the University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE for his Doctor of Medicine. Dr. Dean’s Post-Doctoral training included an Internship and General Surgical Residency at Highland County Hospital, Oakland, CA. He came to Seattle to the University of Washington on a Fellowship in Nephrology. Next was his Residency in Urology at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, NM.
Dr. Dean and his wife Diana C. Dean, CCC, Speech and Language Pathologist, make their home in Gig Harbor. For many years they maintained a large home overlooking the water. More recently they have downsized. Dr. Dean’s face lights up as he says, “It is so wonderful not to have any cares in the world!”
Great story. Thanks for sharing. I hope this is the future of Western medicine as well.
Cynthia, I very much appreciate your comment and I share your hope. It was a privilege to write about Dr. Dean. He is someone I admire so much yet I feel that I barely scratched the surface of the topic of Ayurveda in my introduction of Dr. Dean. He has acquired so much knowledge and has never stopped educating himself even further. Thank you again for writing.